Traffic
by Beckon
Summary: As of right now, they were trying to get to a crime scene that had just been called in... but, of course, the rain came with it and had, unfortunately, slowed traffic down. Pre-Game!AU.


**A/N: My sister told me I needed to write something happier- with maybe less blood this time. And, in doing so, I realized my weakness is writing flat romance. **

If there was one thing she hated, it was when it rained while they were working.

Krimson City was horrible with the coordination of its weather patterns as of lately. Every time they had a call and had to ride out somewhere for a crime scene, without a doubt, about halfway there, it would immediately start down pouring on them. It was a hassle to navigate an indoor scene when officers were constantly tracking water and mud around inside. And the constant running in and out of the rain was an annoyance. But it was better than having to stand outside and try to read a scene that officers had to place a makeshift tent around- and that was if they were lucky enough to get there before the rain did. Having to account for possible evidence that had been washed away was never a fun report to fill out. The uncomfortable feeling of wearing wet or damp clothing never went away either, but it seemed like most of the officers had just learned to deal with it.

And it would always rain on the days she chose to wear heels to work- so that was just another annoyance on the list.

As of right now, they were trying to get to a crime scene that had just been called in... but, of course, the rain came with it and had unfortunately slowed down traffic. It looked like it was a minor gridlock, which always happened when there was rain. It usually took half-an-hour to a full hour for it to break up, so she imagined they would be here awhile. So, this was fun.

Sebastian had to stay back at the station to review something in one of their many, open cases and had told them to go ahead and fill him in on the accident later. And since Connolly was out running patrol, it was just the two of them. She sort of found it odd that, while Connolly wasn't a member of the Detective team, he was always around and just had this habit of driving them around most of the time. She could never figure out if it was coincidental, or if he was doing it on purpose. Either way, she didn't really mind and she didn't really care for it; the man was entertaining in his own right and she usually enjoyed his company.

As frustrating as it seemed, she wasn't too buzzed about the traffic. It gave her some peace and quiet to herself- which she could rarely get back at the precinct as of lately. The place had been working over time with the recent murders and it seemed like they barely had time to handle these day-to-day cases. She used to see them as a waste of time, but after being cooped up in the office for nearly a week straight, she was almost eager to see whatever petty incident this was.

A quiet sigh escaped her as she leaned back in her seat and turned her head to watch the different colored brake lights in front of them through the rain-splattered windshield. It seemed like no matter how fast the window wipers went, they just couldn't keep up with the amount of rain coming down. The peace and quiet time was nice, but... it was also a bit boring with little else to listen to but the occasional honk from an angry driver.

She briefly glanced over to her partner and noted that he kept his eyes on the road and his hands on the wheel.

Usually in traffic like this, Connolly would either turn on the radio or talk about whatever he could think of. He was usually interesting to listen to, since he always seemed to be talking to himself, but she found it more entertaining when he and Joseph got into the typical argument over case-related details. With some of the topic cases, she was almost certain Connolly would purposely get facts wrong just to irritate the Detective. And it would work every time.

Sebastian usually kept to himself, although occasionally he'd mutter something under his breath or let out an irritated groan, but that was it. He never was much of a talker when they were in the squad car; hell, most of the time he seemed somewhat annoyed when they were summoned out to a new crime scene.

Joseph, on the other hand, always stayed calm and quiet. If he was annoyed at all by the traffic, he certainly didn't show it.

She heard him sigh just the same and watched as he finally leaned back in his seat. It seemed like, after ten minutes of stand-still traffic, he was just now realizing that nothing was going to change any time soon and they might as well make themselves comfortable.

And she waited, because she knew he was a person of habit and eventually that habit would kick in when he wasn't paying attention.

And, in due time, it did.

She watched as he reached over and felt the way he casually ran his fingers through her hair, mostly toying with the longer strands against the back of her neck. She wasn't sure if he was aware he was doing it sometimes, although it was hard to believe he didn't since he was always mindful of his actions, but she certainly wasn't going to tell him. If she brought it up, it might make him stop, and while she wasn't planning on showing it any time soon, she happened to enjoy the gesture. It was subtle and discreet, which was one of the reasons she enjoyed it as much as she did; she was never one to like the over the top acts- it created too much attention as far as she was concerned.

Plus, as juvenile as it sounded, she kind of liked it when someone played with her hair.

"What kind of call did we get anyways?" Kidman asked, figuring she might want to know where they were headed. She hadn't bothered to ask beforehand, she just went along for the ride when he asked her to. She waited until she was certain he wouldn't notice, before she turned her head to let his fingers briefly brush against the back of her neck instead. She hid the motion by making it appear like she was just looking out of the passenger window.

He didn't seem to notice at all.

"A reported hit-and-run." Joseph answered. "We have three victims, two of which are already in-route to the hospital, and a third is being treated on-scene with minor injuries. So far, no description of the car, but there is physical evidence of the vehicle at the scene; Forensics is unavailable to be called out right now, so we'll have to drop the evidence off with them when we're through."

"Seems like an easy job, why are we being called out to it?" she continued.

"Because two of our victims have severe, life-threatening injuries. This case could potentially turn into a homicide."

There was always a catch with the crimes in this city.

Nothing was ever as simple as it could've been.

It was almost sad to consider that these kinds of cases didn't seem to bother anyone anymore. With a new body being pulled out of the river almost every day, most of the working officers had pretty much been desensitized to these kinds of reports. She had never really been affected by the sight of a cadaver, nor did it bother her to talk about it. At this point, after working so many months on the case, it was a common topic that was frequently bounced around the office. As horrible as it was, it was just easier for them to detach themselves from cases like these anyways.

It made it easier to work on them without being distracted by emotional burdens.

She turned to look at him for a brief moment, noting that he seemed busy readjusting the side mirror. She had to admit that she only made the motion so that his fingers could briefly trail against the curve of her jaw.

Since it wasn't like they could do much for the time being...

"Don't you think it's dangerous to be driving without both hands on the wheel?" she remarked.

She was aiming it to be a partial tease since he had a tendency to be a bit of a stickler for the rules at times. After all, he was pretty much the only person in the office who kept to the uniform guidelines- even she had chosen to ditch out on her vest and tie earlier in the day. Although she was beginning to regret that since it had started raining; her white blouse was no match against the weather, but she was certainly glad she had remembered to wear a thicker tank-top underneath it. The last thing she needed was to show up at a crime scene with a translucent shirt again- the boys at the office had just stopped talking about the last time.

"What's dangerous is the lack of proper spacing between some of these cars and the fact that traffic is backed up for nearly three blocks." He replied as he pulled his hand away from her and moved to readjust his glasses. "All the access roads are blocked, so it's not like anyone can get around or out of this mess. Not to mention, the obscene lack of active headlights."

She couldn't say that she was surprised.

She watched him remove his glasses for just a few seconds, long enough to quickly clean them off, before he slipped them back on. While he didn't always show it, she knew he was more frustrated by the rain clouding up his glasses than by anything it did to the crime scenes. He was constantly having to dry them off and keep them clean in order to see anything. And lord knows Sebastian made enough comments about it to keep him annoyed.

"I didn't tell you to stop."

"No, you're right, it is dangerous." Joseph insisted.

Kidman chuckled lightly, knowing well that she should've seen this coming. She would make a tease at him and then he would turn it around and make it difficult for her in return; it also worked vice versa though, so she couldn't really complain. "We haven't moved in fifteen minutes." she reminded.

He briefly nodded in agreement, and she made the mistake of thinking she had already won him over.

"Doesn't mean we should let our guard down."

Christ, he just loved toying with her and she fucking knew it.

And he knew that she knew it.

Smiling briefly, she shook her head and brushed her fingers through her hair, before she reached over and let her hand rest against his leg. If he wanted to play hard to get, she had absolutely no problems doing so- but she also had no problems playing by her own rules, or breaking a few of his in the process. She felt him squirm briefly under her touch and took note of his sudden look of disapproval.

"That is not okay." he started.

"I can't see why it wouldn't be." Kidman replied with a light shrug, as she purposely slid her hand higher up along his thigh. "You're following all of the driving safety rules, aren't you?"

"You're distracting me."

"I didn't realize you enjoyed watching the rain and the brake lights so much." she remarked; smiling at the short, exasperated look he shot her. She let her fingers slip and curled them against the inner curve of his thigh as she leaned over to him- only to have him lean away from her at the last minute. But, despite the frustrating move, she could see the way the corner of his lips twitched briefly to resist the oncoming grin that usually followed the evasion of one of her tactics. Always with the damn, hard-to-get ploys."Oh, come on."

"We're on the department's time." Joseph reminded, only briefly glancing to her this time. "We've already had one hit-and-run called in, we don't need another accident. Not to mention... someone might see us."

He was a man who highly valued his privacy and very rarely did he do anything to risk it.

But this was not the first time he had done so, and it wouldn't be the last.

Besides, at this point, with all the rain, she highly doubted anyone could see them; she doubted anyone would be paying attention anyways.

Reaching over with her free hand, she grabbed him by his red tie and gently pulled him to her; he hardly resisted the motion, although he barely had the choice to. Her lips lightly brushed against his when she spoke. "What are they going to do? Call the cops?"

She heard him briefly laugh at the remark before his hand moved to tease her hair once more.

"You are evil." he whispered, as he finally leaned in to her.

She lightly grinned as she pressed her lips to him, feeling the subtle way he kissed her back.

Despite all the trouble it took to get this far, the ending product was always worth it. Sometimes they went easy on each other and sometimes they didn't. She was certain he had more fun making her work for it, but he was more than eager to return her affections- he always had been. Again, she wasn't a stranger to using those same kind of tactics against him, so it was a fair trade.

She kept a steady grip on his tie as she worked in a few short kisses before they slowly began to give in.

They hardly got further than that before the radio gave a brief crackle as it flashed on.

"Unit Zero-Three-Nine, what's your position? You were supposed to report to the hit-and-run by now."

All of that work, only for it to be gone in three seconds as he pulled away from her and moved to answer the call. The radio had been silent ever since they left the station, where they had initially called out to tell the scene that they were on their way.

"We're on route now, but we got stuck in the gridlock on Main and South." Joseph answered.

Kidman waited until he released the call button, to wait for a response, before she briefly pulled him back to her. At the very least, she could take advantage of the waiting periods so all that work wasn't for nothing.

And he didn't fight her on it.

"Why didn't you take the back access road?"

Again, he pulled away.

"Because it's still closed off from the body we found yesterday."

She didn't have to use his tie to bring him back this time, but she did anyways; it was good leverage to use and she liked the way it felt tangled around her fingers. He openly kissed her this time as his fingers curled against the back of her neck and pulled her into the embrace. She sure as hell hoped the radio was off as a short moan came from the back of her throat at the gesture.

Her fingers moved to toy with the knot of his tie before she slowly began to loosen it- making sure to be discreet so he wouldn't notice. It didn't take her long before she had loosened it just enough so it barely hung away from his fixed collar.

She managed to release the first two buttons of his shirt before he finally caught on to her, but he couldn't stop her in time from releasing a few more. And he could do little else as she slipped her hand underneath his shirt and let her fingers run against his bare collarbone. His skin was still a little cold from the rain and she felt him shiver at the warm touch.

He would hate her for disassembling his uniform while he was still on the clock, but the trouble would be well worth it.

"So use the detour."

When he leaned back this time, she had to keep herself from laughing at his partly stunned, partly frustrated expression.

She took the opportunity and gradually moved her hand to cup his tense jaw, while she leaned in and let her lips find their way down his neck- taking advantage of his loose collar for the time being. And he gave into the touch at first, more than likely to get his mind off of the slip-of-the-tongue the officer on the radio had made.

He didn't immediately answer and instead seemed to take a few seconds to recompose himself- either from what the officer had said or from what she was doing to him. Eventually, he picked the radio back up.

"This is the detour." Joseph retorted. "Listen, is the scene in a state of emergency?"

She decided to pull away at the question, figuring they might want to know the answer before this went any further. Although, not like it would matter, they still wouldn't be able to go anywhere anytime soon. But, she had to admit, she had to give him credit for being able to hold his voice as steadily as he did.

His voice barely reacted to the way her hand lightly squeezed his thigh, although she did see him physically shudder in response instead before he tried to brush her hand away.

"Uh no, thankfully it's off the road and in a place clear of the rain- so we won't have to worry about anything being washed away for now. The third victim was taken to the hospital about ten minutes ago for a follow-up exam and an injury report. We've already received his statement though and we're working on forwarding it to the department for the time being."

He nodded briefly and seemed to be thinking the situation over as he began to re-button his shirt in her absence.

"Alright, just keep the crime scene on lockdown until we get there. This mess should clear up in twenty minutes or so. We'll be there within the hour."

"Copy that."

He gave out a sigh as he put the radio back before he pushed his glasses up and pinched the space between his eyes. When he spoke, the frustration in his voice was clearly evident. "By the time we get there, they won't even need us."

She grabbed him by his loose tie once more and pulled him back before he even had a chance to readjust his glasses. "Good."


End file.
